4-Day Work Week: UK Companies Begin Four-Day Week Without Pay Cuts On Trial Basis For 6 Months

Campaigners who are in favour of the lowered working days argued that it would improve work-life balance, while those opposing it believed that it will raise stress as workers would try to fit more work in fewer hours.

New Delhi: Workers in the United Kingdom will from now on enjoy the option of working four-day weeks without any pay cuts. Firms are currently being recruited for a six-month pilot program to examine the impact of reduced working hours on corporate productivity as well as employee well-being, alongside the impact on the environment and gender equality.

The firms will use the 100:80:100 model, in which employees earn 100% of their payment for 80% of the time in exchange for a commitment to retain 100% of their former productive performance.

Campaigners who are in favour of the lowered working days argued that it would improve work-life balance, while those opposing it believed that it will raise stress as workers would try to fit more work in fewer hours, as per Daily Mail.

As part of the trial conducted by 4 Day Week Global, members of staff from various organisations will do the regular amount of work, up to 35 hours per week, and those 35 hours will be divided into four days rather than five.

The program, which is being organised by researchers from Cambridge and Oxford Universities, along with the non-profit campaigners 4 Day Week Global as well as the UK think tank Autonomy seeks to acquire 30 UK enterprises by June this year.

Several influencer agencies are already operating a four-day working week, including Engage Hub, whose employees will have either a Wednesday or a Friday off, rotating every eight weeks.

‘The four-day week challenges the current model of work’

Joe O’Connor, manager of the 4 Day Week Global trial project, stated, “The four-day week challenges the current model of work and helps companies move away from simply measuring how long people are ‘at work’, to a sharper focus on the output being produced,” Euro News reported. Furthermore, according to Joe Ryle, the head of the 4 Day Week UK Campaign, transforming to a four-day week might be a “win-win for companies.”

According to the Guardian, businesses like Morrisons and Unilever are considering converting to a 4-day week, while a British arm of the camera company Canon will partake in the six-month project. Atom Bank, a financial establishment, has already made the switch to a shortened workweek, The Daily Mail reported.

In addition to this, similar studies are anticipated to be conducted in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, with trials already underway in Spain and Scotland. Researchers have argued that the advantages of working a 4-day week include employees returning a more efficient performance at work for their companies.